Chapter 24

The next few days for Molly were perfect. She didn't let anything ruin her mood, not even Jamie who was still persistently ignoring her. Her lessons were brilliant, and by Friday, she, Matt and Rosie were great friends with Kitty Weaver, the chatty Slytherin who was bullied for her lack of magical blood. Her first flying lesson on Thursday afternoon had gone brilliantly; she was easily the best flyer in the class, despite that she'd only ridden a broom once. She earned ten points for Gryffindor from Angelina and went to dinner, beaming with pride.

Molly, Matt and Rosie now knew the way to their lessons relatively well, although they didn't always remember to jump the trick step on one of the staircases. The ghosts who floated around the castle were always happy to help any lost first-years by pointing them cheerfully in the right direction, except, of course, the Bloody Baron, who was often spotted lurking in a dark corner and glaring at the students. In his reply to her letter, Fred had explained that Molly should probably tell Peeves the poltergeist whose daughter she was, as it might stop him pulling pranks on her and her friends as they wound through the corridors. Molly had done just that on the way back from dinner on Saturday evening, when she was quite sure no one but her, Matt and Rosie was around. Peeves had swooped down on them as they headed towards the Fat Lady's portrait, and had been extremely close to dropping a stink bomb on their heads, when Molly had started a particularly loud conversation with Rosie.

"You can't tell anyone, though, the publicity would be awful!" she had practically shouted.

Peeves froze, his stink bomb stuck in his hand. He hovered a little closer to them, listening intently.

"Of course, I won't tell anyone. It would be horrible for you, and it would be all over the Daily Prophet. The shop's sales would drop massively."

"What are the ickle firsties talking about?" Peeves said cheekily. "We're not plotting naughty plans, are we? That could get you a detention!"

"Oh, no, Peeves. We really shouldn't tell you!" Molly said, with a patronising tone.

"I'll just call Professor McGonagall and tell her that the ickle firsties are being naughty then, shall I?"

The three of them shared a fake look of horror. "All right, but you can't tell anyone, do you promise?"

"Of course," Peeves replied automatically, in a tone that said he didn't promise anything at all.

"Fine. Do you remember the two Weasley twins that were at this school just over twenty years ago?" she whispered.

"Ooh, yes. Those two were almost as good as me at pulling pranks," said Peeves eagerly.

"Well, do you remember how one of them died in the war?"

Peeves nodded, "That was a very sad day. Of course, Peevsie has heard rumours that they both survived! Those two were the only two students I've ever admired," Peeves said, full of respect.

"If one of their daughters came to the school, would you admire them too?"

"I expect so, why?" he asked suspiciously.

"Because," she leaned in closer to Peeves so that only he could hear her, "I'm Fred Weasley's daughter."

Peeves gasped, "You're not!"

"I am."

"Prove it," Peeves challenged and Molly pulled out the letter which her dad had written her from her robe pocket.

The poltergeist read the note, a look of pure amazement on his translucent face. When he'd finished, he bowed deeply to Molly and said in a posh voice, "I knew he wasn't really dead! You have my utmost respect, and if there are any pranks I can help you with, just give me a call. Your secret is safe with me."

"Thank you, Peeves," Molly said, satisfied, and as they walked away from the thunder-struck poltergeist, she muttered, "I just hope he keeps his promise."

Matt agreed, "We should have threatened him."

"I don't think there's any need- he seemed happy."

"As long as he stays happy."

The three of them clambered through the portrait hole and into and joined the other Gryffindors in the common room. They sunk into seats by the fire with Tara, Steph, Amy and four of Matt's friends. Those ten Gryffindor first years stuck together all the time at Hogwarts- sitting together at lunch, walking from lesson to lesson with each other and spending free periods together.

The only lesson which hadn't been enjoyable for students in their first week was Herbology, as they had been forced to run across the grounds in the pouring rain, and stand shaking and soaking in a greenhouse for an hour, while the droplets pattered down on the glass above them. They'd returned to the common room, shivering, and complaining, drenched to the bone and then huddled around the fire to warm up on Friday afternoon before dinner.

On Saturday morning, Molly suggested they go down to visit Hagrid. So, after breakfast, the three of them wrapped up in their cloaks and ran through the grounds towards Hagrid's cabin. Smoke was billowing from his chimney, a warm volcano on a freezing winter day. They knocked on his wooden door and waited, bunched close together for warmth. Only a few seconds later, the door swung open and Hagrid beamed down at Molly. Matt and Rosie, who hadn't yet met Hagrid properly, looked slightly uncomfortable as they were welcomed into his hut. A large, black boar-hound sat on a huge armchair in the corner and it growled as Molly came in with her friends.

"Now, now, Fang. These are friends," Hagrid said, patting the dog.

"This is Rosie, and this is Matt," Molly introduced, indicating at her friends.

"Take a seat, I'll make some tea," said Hagrid, "Yeh've only jes' caught me. I was about to leave."

"Where're you going?"

"Off to see your dad and-" he stopped and slapped a hand to his mouth, looking shocked and guilty.

"It's fine, Hagrid," Molly said, interpreting his sudden silence, "I've told them."

Hagrid sighed with relief as he continued, "I was jes' about to go an' make sure that everyone's alrigh'. Need to check on a phoenix they've got too, actually."

"A phoenix?" Matt repeated blankly.

"They've got a sick phoenix that used to belong to Dumbledore, the ol' 'eadmaster of 'ogwarts."

"Why do they have a phoenix?" Molly asked.

"Well, phoenix's tears 'ave 'ealin' powers, see, an' they think Fawkes can 'elp fix your dad up."

He handed out mugs of tea in the biggest cups Molly had ever seen, and sunk into a chair next to them. Molly's chair was so big that her feet couldn't touch the floor. Various cages hung from the dust encased ceiling and the entire cabin was cluttered and messy. It had a surprisingly cosy and homely feeling, despite the chaos. One large bed was stuffed in corner of the room and a patchwork quilt was draped over it. A fire blazed in the far corner, billowing smoke which was engulfed by the chimney and pulled out of sight.

"How's your firs' week bin?" Hagrid asked them kindly.

"Great, it's so amazing here!" Molly said enthusiastically.

"I thought yeh'd like it."

"It's magical," Rosie said.

"Literally," agreed Matt.

The three of them spent the rest of the morning with Hagrid, but at about 11:00, he insisted that he had to go.

"I've got to get Professor McGonagall. Tol' 'er I'd come an' get 'er when I was leavin'," he explained as he accompanied them through the grounds and up to the castle.

He soon split off from them and headed towards McGonagall's office while Molly, Rosie and Matt all made their way towards the common room. They were the only people out on the corridors. Footsteps echoed through the halls, and several times they had to stop and turn back as they'd taken a wrong turn. At one point, they found themselves standing in a dusty classroom which was still laid out as though a class was being taught. Books, quills and dried ink were placed on the desk, positioned as though a lesson had been abandoned only half completed. The few words that had been written on the parchment were shrivelled and unreadable, and the pages rolled up at the corners. They decided not to stay for too long.

Finally, the three of them were heading in the right direction of the common room, treading the path past portraits and suits of rusted armour. They clambered through the Fat Lady's portrait hole and sunk into armchairs next to the crackling fire. Professor Slughorn had set them the homework of writing a two-foot essay on the seven differences between a cleverness potion and a youth potion.

They spent the rest of the evening staring out of the window in the common room, eager to see Hagrid the second he returned.

But nobody returned to the cabin that night, even once Molly and her friends had surrendered and gone up to bed, abandoning their essays.

The next morning, no smoke was billowing from the chimney, and the hut looked abandoned, so unloved by its owner that in the miserable weather, it wouldn't have looked out of place in a ghost train ride in a theme park. Neither Hagrid, nor Professor McGonagall was at breakfast, and when Molly asked Angelina if she'd heard from them, Angelina only told her she didn't even know that they'd gone anywhere.

Molly sighed and threw herself into the seat next to Matt. She placed a few sausages on her plate but only stared at them. The perfect mood that she'd tried so hard to keep had been ruined. Maybe she'd accidently sent her excitement in a letter with Pepper; in a letter that was being taken far, far away, flown to the edge of the world. But her gorgeous owl had been happily snuggled in the owlery since she'd arrived with Fred's letter, which she'd kindly dropped into Molly's orange juice on Wednesday morning.

Longing desperately to hear something from home, Molly left Rosie and Matt to make her way up to the owlery. The tall, circular room was crammed with owls of all different sizes, and the moment Molly entered, Pepper swooped down from somewhere high above and landed obediently on the window ledge in amongst all the bird droppings.

"Just a minute, Pepper," Molly muttered as she removed two pieces of parchment and a quill from her pocket and began to write:

To Mum,

I love Hogwarts. It's such a beautiful castle, I wish you could see it. Lessons are so interesting, there's no maths or science or anything like that. It's a shame about the weather though, it makes the grounds look like a swamp and you can't even see a quarter of a mile across the mountains. I don't know if dad told you, but I've been sorted into Gryffindor house. I have two really good friends, Matt and Rosie, and it's way better here than it would have been at that other high school.

I miss you loads, lots of love, Molly.

Placing aside her finished letter, Molly slid her second piece of parchment in front of her.

To Dad,

I really hope you and Uncle George are ok.

My first week has been so brilliant, but I still miss you and Mum loads. I've made friends with Peeves (I hope) by telling him about you, but, apart from him, only my friends Rosie and Matt know. I really like the lessons, they're so fun and exciting, except maybe History of Magic.

Love, from Molly.

She folded up the letters and attached both to Pepper, who rubbed her head against Molly's hand before swooping out the window.

Wrapping her hands in her cloak to protect them from the nipping cold, Molly clambered down the stairs and began heading back to the common room. It was only when she realised that she was the only one alone in the sea of people in the corridors, that she remembered Professor McGonagall's warning that she gave at the start of the term- "Everybody will do very well to remember that they should not go wandering about the corridors alone, especially at night".

'Technically,' Molly thought, 'I'm not wandering. I know exactly where I'm going and it definitely isn't night.' But the words still rang in her head. Why had she felt the need to tell the entire school this? Molly was sure that Hogwarts was one of the safest places in the world!

She found Rosie and Matt in the common room, still working on their potions essay. Matt, whose untidy scribbled handwriting had so far only covered about half a foot, seemed completely stuck. As Molly took a seat next to him and removed her quill and ink, Matt looked up at her helplessly, "I can't remember them! All I've got is that a youth potion is crimson coloured while a cleverness potion is more scarlet and that one's gloopier and thicker than the other."

Molly shrugged and unrolled her parchment. She quickly scanned through her own work, which was only missing one difference and said to Matt, "Youth potions bubble when heated but cleverness potions steam."

Gratefully, Matt scrawled this onto his sheet before peering over at Rosie's work. "How did you make five reasons fill the whole two feet?" he demanded, "You've done extra!"

"You can't just write the differences," Rosie said, "You have to explain them too, go into some detail, otherwise it's just a list."

When the three of them had taken seats in the Great Hall for lunch, the first thing that Molly noticed was that Professor McGonagall was once again sitting at the staff table, although she looked rather pale and her face was creased with concern. Naturally, this did not reassure Molly in the slightest.

"I've just been talking to Professor McGonagall," said Angelina, as she hurried over to Molly from the staff table. "Everyone's ok, don't worry."

"Why does she look so anxious then?"

"Because your dad has decided that he's going to tell the Daily Prophet where he's been for the last twenty years."

"You're joking!"

"I'm afraid not. He's been going into work every day expecting to see a reporter. Thank goodness there haven't been any yet, but it's only a matter of time before he runs into someone."

"Fantastic," Molly said in exasperation, "Really fantastic."

"On the plus side, once they've healed Fawkes, hopefully they'll be able to heal the twin's wounds and apparently, there's a way to break that stupid Vow too."

"Well, that's something," Molly grumbled.

"The people on that weird island can't be too happy though. The storm's got a lot more violent since they stole the phoenix. Professor McGonagall is worried that they're going to start attacking, and then it'll be really hard to keep anyone safe. You have to be careful, Molly," Angelina said as she got up to leave. "Stay with these two at all times."

So, from that day on, Molly made absolutely sure to stay with Rosie and Matt. Although she didn't usually go anywhere without her friends, it eventually reached the point where Rosie wouldn't even let Molly be in the dormitory by herself.

As the weeks rolled on, no articles explaining where Fred had appeared in the Daily Prophet, but not everything was quite so perfect.

In the first Quidditch match of the year- Gryffindor against Ravenclaw- one of the bludgers smacked James straight in the head and he spent a week stuck in the hospital wing with concussion.

Only a few days later, Rose had been pushed down one of the particularly long staircases by a group of boys behind her and had landed in the entrance hall, limbs twisted at very odd angles.

None of the incidents had yet been fatal, but Molly knew it was only a matter of time before something went badly wrong. The teachers, who had all clearly been warned about these dangers, were taking extra care to keep Molly safe. Teddy's Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons had become a lot less interesting, and Professor Slughorn only gave them the simplest of potions to brew. One of the only lessons which hadn't really changed was their weekly flying class. Angelina still allowed Molly to fly, but always made sure that there was someone hovering below her in case she fell. The plants in Herbology weren't dangerous or poisonous at all- repotting begonias would have been more exciting- and charms lessons mainly consisted of Professor Flitwick talking at them. Due to their lack of practical or interesting lessons, teachers had been piling more and more homework on them. Most people thought that this was purely unfair, but Molly was pretty sure that it was so she wouldn't have the time to wander about the corridors at weekends or between lessons.

Halloween, however, was by far the best day at Hogwarts that Molly had experienced.

Hagrid had decorated the hall with the biggest pumpkins anyone had ever seen and they'd all been carved with amazingly beautiful patterns and designs each slightly different to the pumpkin next to it. Live pixies had been placed in each so they all glowed a unique colour. The ghosts had prepared a parade, which was ruined, to the student's great amusement, by Peeves, who swooped into the hall, marched in front of the other ghosts, sang rude songs and pulled stupid faces. As he was chased out by the caretaker, Peeves winked at Molly before loop-de-looping out of sight. The ceiling of the hall showed a dark night sky with bright, twinkling stars and a large shining moon.

Sluggishly, everyone filed up the stairs to their common rooms, dragging their feet and yawning with exhaustion. Not one Gryffindor stayed in the common room for more than half an hour after the feast- they were all drained of any energy. Molly and Rosie bade goodnight to Matt and climbed the stairs to their dormitory. There seemed to be ten times as many steps as usual on the way up to their room; their weariness had drained them of their sanity. Molly's bed was like heaven. She'd never appreciated just how amazing it actually looked, with its plump pillows and beautifully soft duvets. She folded herself into the blanket's cosy arms, and instantly fell asleep.